One step forward, two steps back: transitions between home, pre-primary and primary education in rural India

A growing evidence base highlights the value of high-quality early childhood education (ECE) to children's cognitive and social development. However, far less is known about how families and children, especially in developing countries, participate in ECE or how these participation patterns ref...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Compare 2020-05, Vol.50 (4), p.482-499
Main Authors: Alcott, Benjamin, Banerji, Manjistha, Bhattacharjea, Suman, Nanda, Mansi, Ramanujan, Purnima
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access to Education
Assam
Childhood
Children
Cognition
Cognitive Development
Decision making
Developing countries
Developing Nations
Early Childhood Education
Education policy
Educational Policy
Elementary education
Families & family life
Foreign Countries
India
LDCs
National Standards
Participation
Preschool children
Preschool Education
Primary Education
Rajasthan
Rural Areas
Rural schools
Social development
Student Needs
Student Participation
Telangana
Young Children
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Summary:A growing evidence base highlights the value of high-quality early childhood education (ECE) to children's cognitive and social development. However, far less is known about how families and children, especially in developing countries, participate in ECE or how these participation patterns reflect families' thinking and decision-making. This paper utilises a mixed-methods approach to analyse longitudinal household survey and interview data (on 7336 and 180 children, respectively) from the India Early Childhood Education Impact study. Our results indicate that children's participation trajectories in the early years (age four to eight) do not reflect the age or grade norms specified by national educational policies. And, far from being linear, children's educational pathways entail considerable back and forth between home, preschool and school. The authors argue that these trajectories reflect both poor implementation of national norms as well as an inadequate understanding among both parents and service providers of how best to support young children's cognitive development.
ISSN:0305-7925
1469-3623
DOI:10.1080/03057925.2018.1527214